We wanted to avail of Shui Hilot after our Korea trip / before my birthday but when I called for reservations, there was no slots available so we were just able to get this on the last week of July. When I called for reservations, it was hard to get a slot because a lot of people have already made their reservations and it doesn’t help that MetroDeal recycled this deals so that would mean more competition for the booking of slots.

I managed to get a slot for July 26, 1pm but due to our random mistake, we thought it was 1130am and we arrived there a few minutes after 1130am. We thought we were late but we were super early. It’s a good thing that the receptionist was flexible enough to allow us to avail of the service ahead of time (we were the only customers there at that time since they open at 11am).

Shui Hilot has a nice ambiance to it. The floor had banig mattings on it and there were art paintings on the wall. The lights were dim and there was instrumental music playing. However, I noticed that there cockroaches (saw a dead one in the waiting area).

Anyway, let’s move on to the massage experience at Shui Hilot Spa. There were three services that have been given to us;

Ventosa,

Dagdagay foot hilot and

hilot massage.

Ventosa (or ventosa cupping massage) is a massage that aims to remove “lamig” from your back. This is done by using glasses and creating a vacuum on it then putting it on your back. You will feel that something is lifting your skin as the vacuum pulls on your skin. Then the glass would be moved so that it will bring the “air” or “lamig” it outside of your body. It started with four glasses on my back but eventually it became three. This is the first time that I had this kind of massage and it felt good. I can really feel the pull on my back.

The next one was the foot massage. They used Dagdagay foot hilot in which they would poke the sole of your foot (pressure points) then after that roll the stick on your feet (it reminded me on how you use a rolling pin on bread). I didn’t know what to expect from this so I just described what I felt on it.

Dagdagay is an authentic Igorot/Cordilleran leg and foot massage that uses two bamboo or rattan sticks to stimulate the soles and cleanse and purify the feet (source)

The last one was the whole body massage. I liked this massage because it differs from the usual massage that I get where the therapist would massage you based on a predefined routine. However, for this massage it was different in a way that even though they have a routine for the massage, they would customize the massage depending on where your body needs it. The therapist spent a lot of time of my back and on the back of my legs. It was painful at times when the therapist is trying to crush that “lamig” by doing repeated long strokes on it.

I knew I had lots of “lamig” on my back due to the weather (very humid and then the sweat would dry on my back) and I even woke up with a painful back. So this was a good test of their hilot massage and it passed with flying colors. I woke up the next day feeling much better!